The View From Canada
Monday, October 27, 2008
Margaret Wente, columnist for The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, writes these rather startling words on October 18:
Who can blame Canadians for being bored numb by our election? We didn’t need it. The stakes were low. The main contenders were unappealing. And after it was over, nothing really changed.
The real show is still two weeks away. My nails are bitten down to my elbow, because what happens in the U.S. will shape our fortunes far more profoundly than anything that happens in Canada. If the U.S. doesn’t prosper, we won’t, either. If America isn’t safe, neither are we. If Americans can’t figure out how to do more good than harm in places such as Afghanistan, then all our fine intentions and our soldiers’ blood won’t be worth a cup of spit. We desperately need an America that can find its way ahead again.
America is weaker today than it’s been since the 1930s. Its moral authority in the world is shattered. Its proudly capitalist financial system has collapsed. The U.S. has created the first true crisis of globalization – and only the U.S. can fix it.
Read the column:
Now comes the ‘real’ election by Margaret Wente
The Globe and Mail
October 18, 2008
